This invention relates to a device for automatically supplying reels of wrapping material to a utiliser machine. From British Patent Application No. 2,093,439, a device of the aforesaid type is known in which automatic transfer means take-up the reels individually from a reserve stock in order to transfer them to a utilisation position, in which means forming part of the utiliser machine unwind from them a web intended for a wrapping operation.
The operation of the transfer means takes place under the control of a control device sensitive to the depletion of the reel which is being unwound in the utilisation position. In the reserve stock, the reels, which are disposed side-by-side, rest by way of their respective outer cylindrical surfaces on an inclined conveyor constituted by the upper branches of three endless belts disposed in such a manner as to define a cradle arranged to prevent the reels undergoing movement transverse to their respective axes. The reels are loaded manually or automatically on the inclined conveyor, and descend stepwise along it as they become individually taken-up by the transfer means at the lower end of the magazine.
The transfer means are constituted by a carriage, mobile with to-and-fro movement between the reel take-up position and the utilisation position.
On the carriage there is pivoted an arm, sized in such a manner that on rotation about its pivot, one of its free ends becomes inserted into the tubular spindle of the reel waiting in the take-up position.
The described device has the drawback of being sized for a determined reel diameter.
When it is required to use reels of a diameter different from this value, it is necessary to replace or at least adjust said arm, so as to enable it to insert its free end into the tubular spindles of the reels.
A further drawback of the described device derives from the fact that reels inside the magazine lie on the belts of the inclined conveyor during their transfer from the loading position to the take-up position, with consequent deterioration and soiling of their most outer turns.